Writing

Essays, reviews, and interviews on art, culture, technology, and the environment

Eden, and The Art of Killing Kudzu, Degree Critical

I flew to Eden, NC in October, 2016 as a part French artist Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques’ project based on the town. Originally we wanted to ride bicycles for the approximately 550 miles from Brooklyn to Eden, but quickly realized that we had neither the necessary equipment, time, nor physical endurance to complete the trip without risking serious injury. This organic quixotic impulse offers a pristine mirror for the idea of Eden, of paradise. We, like billions of people for thousands of years, were ready to suffer A LOT in order to reach an idealized destination. Unlike others, however, our paradise was more about the artistic and poetic act of getting to Eden, than a real belief that we were traveling to a true utopia (an essentially flawed idea, because “utopia” literally translates to “no place”).